TEMPORARY BAR BAN FAILS

Encinitas council one vote shy of passing moratorium on new bars

ENCINITAS  A proposal to temporarily ban new bars in downtown Encinitas failed to win passage by the City Council on Wednesday night.

Proponents of the ban had argued the action was needed to help the city get a handle on late-night noise, lewd behavior, public drunkenness and other problems in the city’s downtown core.

To enact the 45-day moratorium, four of the five council members had to vote in favor of the plan. Councilwoman Kristen Gaspar and Councilman Tony Kranz stated Wednesday night they couldn’t support the ban — yet.

“I’ve never said I don’t support a moratorium, but I don’t believe the time is now,” said Gaspar.

Instead, she and Kranz said they wanted to give the Encinitas Hospitality Association — a newly formed group of downtown bar and restaurant owners opposed to the ban — more time to come up with other solutions.

Last week, the City Council voted to give the group 45 days to come forward with suggestions on how to curb alcohol-related problems.

At Wednesday’s meeting, Mayor Teresa Barth, Councilwoman Lisa Shaffer and Councilman Mark Muir said they wanted to move forward with the moratorium now, even as the hospitality group starts working on other ideas.

“I’ll be supporting the moratorium because I think it’s a good timeout,” Muir said before the vote.

Barth said she was “really disappointed” that the proposal failed. Shaffer said she was upset by misinformation on the hospitality group’s website that said the council was poised to force existing bars and alcohol-serving businesses to close at midnight.

She said the organization took comments she made months ago — suggesting she saw no reason for downtown bars to stay open past midnight — and twisted that by saying it was being considered by the council.

“Just because I said it doesn’t make it a proposal of the City Council,” she said.

Although the moratorium failed, the council will revisit the downtown bar issue at its Aug. 28 meeting. A report from the hospitality commission is expected at that time.

Wednesday night’s meeting was the third in three weeks on the proposed moratorium. Hundreds of people attended the July 10 council meeting — so many that the fire marshal had to order many out of the building.

About 40 people spoke about the issue during public comments, including many bar owners unhappy with the plan.

At this week’s meeting, the council chambers were nearly full and about two dozen speakers addressed the panel — many of them in favor of the ban.

They included several public health advocates who told stories about the devastating effects of alcohol abuse.

Downtown residents, some business owners and representatives from the Self-Realization Fellowship have long argued for tougher restrictions on alcohol-serving businesses in the area.

The issue has occasionally come before the council over the years, but complaints have intensified in the past two years.

There are 29 restaurants and bars licensed to serve alcohol in downtown Encinitas. That’s three more than there were in 2008.

The city’s planning director, Jeff Murphy, said Wednesday that there are four pending applications for businesses that could be affected by a new moratorium.